Cameron County preps for mosquitoes

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS (KVEO NEWSCENTER 23) — City workers in the Lower Valley are spraying various areas with larvacide to prevent these mosquitoes from being as prevalent, or becoming adults.

"You want to kill the mosquitos before they hatch, before they become adults and start flying, so we, the larvacides kill them in the larva stage," said Harlingen environmental health director Ramiro Gonzalez.

"What we're doing in this part of time, actually, we're doing it throughout the city of Brownsville, we're making sure that the ditches are larvacided and everything to prevent mosquitos from becoming adults," said Brownsville Public Health rep, Willie Gonzales.

But once they have reached the adult stage, the Health Department uses a new insect repellent called "adulticide".

This new machine allows city workers to travel twice as fast and cover the same amount of ground with adulticide.

"Once a mosquito becomes an adult, the female mosquito is actually the one that bites because she needs the protein in the human blood to reproduce, uh, so she's a lot more of a nuisance but mosquitos are known to carry diseases," said Gonzales.

And if you're prone to mosquito bites, just remember the four Ds:

"Dusk to dawn, or the times of the day, when you should stay indoors, dress, dress in long sleeves and past when you're outside, Deet is an ingredient for insect repellent, drain standing water in the backyard."